Spotlight: With Delicate Indie Pop Sounds and Big Dreams, Mia Van De Loo Debuts With EP ‘Open Book’
TO TURN LEMONS INTO AN EMPIRE AND ENJOY THE LEMONADE — is Mia Van De Loo’s plan for the foreseeable future. The Massachusetts-born singer-songwriter might only be 20 years old and an emerging voice in the music biz, but she’s ready to take the indie world by storm. Now, with the release of her debut EP, open book, she’s welcoming us into her world filled with delicate vocals.
Van De Loo grew up making music with her family — she remembers how she would write songs together with her dad, her dad crafting the music while she wrote the lyrics. Her extended family often harmonized with one another whenever they gathered for holidays.
But it wasn’t until she was gifted a ukulele for Christmas in her freshman year of high school that Van De Loo began taking making music seriously. She continued writing music through her gap year and first semester of college, which then led her to drop out of school to pursue music two years ago.
Since then, she’s worked hard to make money for her career, creating social media content and recording her first EP, open book.
The songs featured on the project were the first ones Van De Loo wrote as a legitimate songwriter. Despite her songwriting being inspired by whatever artists she’s listening to at the moment, open book follows a more tender, intimate, and introspective indie-pop style, following artists such as Dodie, Conan Gray, and Cavetown.
But Van De Loo admits that she felt her expectations for her music were shattered when she brought the songwriting material into the studio, where Van De Loo and her producers tried to draw on some early Clairo, Billie Eilish, namely “don’t smile at me,”, and Mazie, especially in “goodbye friend.”
“I think a really central theme in open book is learning how to exist relationally as you grow up,” Van De Loo explains of the thematic side of the project. “I wrote each of these songs around when I was 15, so each [track] on the EP has an element of learning who you are in the world and how to exist in it.”
The first song off of the EP, “fairytale,” explores being romantically interested in someone who you are positive is a bad influence and a waste of time.
“My heart and my mind were fighting over the silent adoration I had for this boy,” Van De Loo recalls, “and I wrote ‘fairytale’ to make some sense of that battle and ultimately to convince myself to prioritize my own emotional health… I acknowledge the things I loved about him, but turned them on their head to ask myself and the listener whether those positive attributes are as positive as they seem.”
As for the other songs featured on the project, “match” explroes learning to advocate for yourself when you’re mistreated, “doll” celebrates learning to love. “Goodbye friend” details the process of learning when to let go of a friend, while “lullaby” ends the EP with learning how to rest and rely on others.
“Each song on this project is about a different person or a different experience, but having written each of these songs in the same year of my life, it really encapsulates what it’s like to be a teenager and to come into your own,” the artist explains.
Open book was recorded in Studio 42 in Brooklyn and produced by Laiko, who understood and enhanced the artist’s music. But like many indie artists, Van De Loo dreams of working with Jack Antonoff.
To raise the money to produce and market the project, Van De Loo started by nannying for a few months, then spent the next year and a half working as a waitress, and as a receptionist for a country club athletic center. Although she is also currently playing gigs and teaching music to support herself, hustling seems to have paid off, since the artist is now headed to Amsterdam for a three-month music production course. Since her time is very precious, Van De Loo tried to choose jobs that either allowed her to work in my craft during the job or that offered a decent pay per hour.
“I can’t wait for the day I can quit my day jobs and work on music alone, but until then, it’s all about maximizing the time you’re given,” she reflects.
And it’s about time that the artist goes on tour, accompanying artists she admires as an opening act.
“If there’s one thing I know about the music industry so far, it’s that most often, opportunities will not be handed to you,” she says. “You need to create them for yourself.”
But for now, Van De Loo is working on setting up a “super tiny, casual” headline tour around the country in the late spring or early summer, possibly couchsurfing to play in coffee shops and house shows and get a bit of that tour experience.
A year from now, she hopes to have her second EP fully funded and recorded, be able to quit her day jobs, and embark on another national tour. And, of course, continue exploring and developing her sound.
“But with whatever opportunities I’m handed in the next year, I plan to turn lemons into an empire, and enjoy the lemonade too,” she concludes.
